Clothes-pounder.



S. G. BERGH. CLOTHES POUNDER.

APPLICATION nuso 001.24. 1914.

Patented July 17, 1917.

SUSAN GQBERGH, OF WEST NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 17, 1mm.

Application filed October 24, 1914. Serial No. 868,375.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SUSAN G. BERGH, a citizen of the United States, residing at West New York, in the county of Hudson and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Clothes-Founders, fully described and rep resented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the same.

This invention relates to clothes pounders, or clothes washers of that class in which the washer comprises a body or head and an upwardly extending handle, and in which the body or head is formed or constructed to promote the passage of water through the clothes when the washer is moved up and down in the water containing the clothes.

The object of the invention is to provide an improved washer of this kind, and more particularly to provide one which shall be easy to use and highly eflicient in operation, durable, and of simple and inexpensive construction.

A full understanding of the invention can best be given by a description in connection with drawings showing an approved embodiment of the invention, and such a description will now be given in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a view in side elevation of an approved embodiment of the invention, the handle being shown as broken off;

Fig. 2 is a bottom plan view of the pounder head; and

Fig. 3 is a section taken on line 33 of Fig. 1 looking downward.

Referring to the drawings, the washer or pounder comprises a pounder head 10 and an upwardly extending handle 11. The

pounder head as shown is formed from a solid block of wood or other suitable mate rial of suitable density, and is shaped round in cross section with an inwardly sloping upper part. The bottom of the pounder head is flat but formed with intersecting grooves or channels 12 and 13 extending clear across the bottom and through the sides. These channels should be of substantial depth to provide for the flow or passage of water therethrough, and in a pounder having a head of a little less than six inches in diameter and about seven and a half inches high, which is a size which I have found well suited for general use, the grooves or channels are best made in the number and arrangement and of about the proportionate size shown. Extending upward from the points of intersection of the channels 12 and 13 are interior channels or passageways let which a short distance above the bottom channels turn outwardly and open through the sides of the pounder head. The outwardly extending portions of the channels 14 are in the construction shown, and most desirably, divided or branched as shown best in Fig. 3. The branched out wardly extending portions 14 which may be, though they are not necessarily, of the same diameter as or of greater diameter than the upwardly extending portions of the channels, increase the interior space which is open when the ends of the passages opening through the sides of the pounder head are above the water and closed when the ends of the passages are below the water level. The head as shown is also formed with a central through passage or bore 15, the upper end of which provides a socket to receive the lower end of the handle 11, and the lower portion of which provides an upwardly extending passage open only at its lower end through the bottom of the pounder head. The handle of Wood or other suitable material may be of any suitable length but is usually made about three feet long.

The washer is used in the same way as other washers of this kind, that is, by being worked up and down on the clothes in the water. The alternate pressure or down strokes and suction or up strokes result in forcing the water with more or less air through the clothes, and a comparatively including in this termall sorts of light and heavy body clothes, bed clothes, table linen and other pieces of fabric, is thus secured. On the downward movement of the washer, as the clothes are pressed downward the waterflows against the clothes through the bottom channels 12 and 13 and also flows upwardly through the clothes into the bottom channels and up into the channels 14:. On the return or upward stroke the clothes are lifted by suction with the pounder until the side openings are raised above the surface of the water, whereupon the suction will be broken and as air enters the side openings the water carried in the passages 14 will be discharged downwardly against the clothes from the passages 14.

By making the pounder headv of a solid block of wood with the channels and passages as shown, I provide a washer having both considerable weight and considerable buoyancy or floating power, that is, on the one hand, the pounder head is heavyas compared to the sheet metal washers commonly in use, and on the other hand, its disp1acement is also relatively large, and when made as shown in the drawings of a suitable wood the relation between the weight and the dis: placement of the pounder head will be such that with the handle extending upward the pounder will float in water with the major portion, usually about two-thirds, of the head submerged. This is of great advantage in nsingthe washer, since the weight gives a momentum on the down stroke which makes any hard fatiguing downward push-r ng of he wash r. unn sary, a t e lifting or floating power of thehead serves to im ediately sta it. up rd again after h completion of the. down stroke, thus mateially e sening the pow r which wo otherwise have to be applied in, raising the pounder. The washer is thus very much easier to. use a d t e o k of wa hing is materially lightened as compared to tl qt With a w sh of th n hic does not. hav the weight and relative buoyancy of my ashes This feature of the, invention may, of rse, b mbodied in a as er hav ng a Pow h e ma e the e t an of a lid loc o w od or h r m er al of uitable n ity-l n mak ng the pounder head i sol d l ck of w d o her ma er a h v head need not necessarily be made of a single ntegr piece, altho gh i making the ead. of a solid block it is desirable for practical reasons to form the block from a single integral piece. In using the term wood I do not. mean to include such unusual and heavy w o s as w ll not float. or wh h hav only a Slight. b oy ncy- I d i mo t d ir ble to use, a fairly buoyant. wood such as ash orsoecalled white wood.

Another advantage. of forming the pounder head of'wood or s mi ar ma e al s t it will not corro,de, and the Washer thus has a max m m du a ty a d pra i ally de tmctime I s to b und r t od tha h nv n is n t o e. mi d. th exa t. ape f he head and arrangement of channels and pasag s as n th il ustrative em cdinient shown and to which the foregoing descrip tion has been largely confined, but that it includes changes and modifications thereof within the claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A clothes pounder, comprising a pounder head and an upwardly extending handle the head being formed of wood and shaped with an inwardly sloping upper part and having a flat bottom face formed with channels extending outwardly through the sid s and having a plurality of interior passagesv extending upward from said channels and opening utward through the sides of the head- 2 A clothes. pounder, comprising apounder head and an upwardly cxtendii-tg handle, the head having a bottom face formed with intersecting channels which extend outward through the sides of the head, and the head having a plurality of interior passages extending upward from the points of intersection of suit chaluwls, and opening outward through, the sides of the head.

3.. A clothes pounder, comprising a piounder head and an upwardlyextending handle the head having a bottom face formed with intersecting channels. which extend out ard through, the sides oi the head, and the head having a plurality of into rioi; passages extending upward from the points oi intersection of said channels and branched passages leading from the upper ends of said passages and opening outward through the sides of the head.

4;. A clothes pounder, comprising pounderhead and an upwardly extending handle, th h ad being fo m with c annels. in its bottom face eXteILdiug outwardly through the sides and with a plurality of interior passages extending upward trout said channels and opening outward through the sides of the head, and the head being of such. weight with relation, to its displacement that with. the handle extending upward the pounder will float in, water with the major portion of the head submerged.

In testimony whereof 1 have l-icrcuuto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

SUSAN G. BER-GIL lgvitnesses A-. K N PAUL H. FR K q ig is 9f h s Retest nez; he Q te stl 22 re ents ach, x edslressing the Comm s on r of Raten s,

W s ing 

